The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance Holding Ltd. on Monday, saying that the company broke U.S. rules against trading futures and derivatives.
The complaint says that Binance continues to actively look for and aid U.S. customers even though the exchange has made it clear that Americans can’t use it.
In 2019, Binance’s global platform stopped working for US customers unless they utilized a virtual private network (VPN) to mask where they were. In the same year, Binance.US, a platform designed for people in the United States and engineered to follow American legislation, was released.
The Wall Street Journal wrote on it:
The Wall Street Journal has said before that the CFTC and other government agencies, such the Justice Department, have been looking at Binance for years. The CFTC’s main instrument for enforcement is the prospect of permanent exclusion from U.S. derivatives markets and trading in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ether, and litecoin that fulfill the definition of commodities. This is in addition to being able to give punishments.
In particular, the lawsuit says that Mr. Zhao and Mr. Lim “helped and told customers in the U.S. to avoid compliance controls” set up by their companies.
Rostin Behnam, the head of the CFTC, said, “Binance knew they were breaking CFTC rules for years and worked hard to keep the money flowing and stay out of trouble.” The CFTC “will not tolerate willful evasion of U.S. law,” so “anyone in the digital asset world should take this as a warning.”
During the time when Joe Biden was president, American government took a harder line against the Bitcoin industry. The SEC recently delivered a Wells notice to Coinbase, which is thought to be the most trustworthy and legal bitcoin exchange.